NASCAR The Game | |
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Genre(s) | NASCAR, auto racing, sim racing |
Developer(s) | Eutechnyx |
Publisher(s) | Activision, Deep Silver, Dusenberry Martin Racing |
Platform(s) | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Microsoft Windows |
First release | NASCAR The Game: 2011 May 24, 2011 [1] |
Latest release | NASCAR '15 May 22, 2015 |
NASCAR The Game, occasionally abbreviated as NTG, is a discontinued series of NASCAR video games developed by Eutechnyx, which held the NASCAR license from 2011 to the end of 2015. [2] [3] The first installment, NASCAR The Game: 2011 , is the first NASCAR game to have been released since EA Sports relinquished the license after NASCAR 09 in 2008. [4] [5]
Game | Season | Publisher | PC | Consoles |
---|---|---|---|---|
NASCAR The Game: 2011 | 2010, 2011 | Activision | — | PS3, 360, Wii |
NASCAR The Game: Inside Line | 2012, 2013 | Activision | — | PS3, 360, Wii |
NASCAR The Game: 2013 | 2013 | Activision | Windows | — |
NASCAR '14 | 2014 | Deep Silver | Windows | PS3, 360 |
NASCAR '15 | 2015 | Dusenberry Martin Racing | Windows | PS3, 360 |
Game | Season | Developer | Publisher | Platform(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|
NASCAR Unleashed | 2011 | Firebrand Games | Activision | PS3, 360, Wii, Nintendo 3DS |
NASCAR Redline [6] | 2013 | Eutechnyx Limited | Activision | iPhone, iPad, Android |
In September 2010, Activision and Eutechnyx announced the development of NASCAR The Game: 2011 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii. Developer Eutechnyx had signed a multi-year to be the new licensee for NASCAR games, with Activision acting as the publisher. [7] The second title in the series, NASCAR The Game: Inside Line , was released on November 6, 2012. [4] In July 2013, Eutechnyx released NASCAR The Game: 2013 (an optimized version of NTG: Inside Line) for Microsoft Windows, the first licensed NASCAR game for PC since 2005. [8] After Eutechnyx had announced plans to self-publish future NASCAR games, [6] in October 2013, Deep Silver announced it had picked up the publishing rights for the series. Under Deep Silver, NASCAR '14 was released on February 18, 2014. [9] In January 2015, Dusenberry Martin Racing (formally known as DMi Games), acquired the NASCAR licence from Eutechnyx, publishing NASCAR '15 as an update to NASCAR '14. [2] [3] [10]
As opposed to annual releases, like in the EA Sports series, Eutechnyx chose to release semi-annual games and add new seasons as downloadable content. NASCAR The Game: 2011 features the 2010 and 2011 seasons, and NASCAR The Game: Inside Line features the 2012 and 2013 seasons. [4] [7] [11] Likewise, NASCAR 15 was released as an update to NASCAR 14, and priced significantly lower than most video games. [10] Eutechnyx lost the NASCAR license to 704Games in 2015. [12]
NASCAR The Game was designed to appeal to the casual video game player, as opposed to full simulators such as NASCAR Racing 2003 Season and iRacing . Eutechnyx describes the series as the most realistic experience available on the consoles. [4] [7] [13] [14] [15]
In all iterations of the game, the Main Menu is presented as the interior of a team's home garage, with crew members working on cars, and fans observing from an upper balcony. [4] [7] Beginning with NTG: Inside Line, the race day menu was presented as the infield garage of each racetrack. [4] The Loading Screen is presented as a bulletin board, featuring decals of NASCAR contingency sponsors, advertisements for Sprint wireless products, and photos of in-race action from the current game and prior games, and photos the player captures during gameplay. It features a V.I.P or press pass-style lanyard showing the track specifications and the player's stats at the track. This lanyard was shared with NASCAR on Fox's race coverage graphics. [4]
The series features Cautions (and occasional Red Flags due to excessive wrecks), free pass and wave-arounds, double-file restarts, and Green–white–checker finishes. Beginning with NASCAR '14 , group qualifying was integrated. Also in NASCAR '14, starts and restarts were upgraded, allowing the player to take control of the car within the "restart zone", as opposed to when the car crosses the start-finish line. This is improved over prior console games, though not as in-depth as simulators in-which the player controls the car during pace laps and pit-stops. [16]
The series' first installment, NASCAR The Game: 2011, features pre-race commentary from Performance Racing Network radio announcers Doug Rice and Mark Garrow. [14] Later editions of the game feature commentary from NASCAR on Fox lead announcers Mike Joy and Darrell Waltrip (with Larry McReynolds absent). [4] The pre-race presentation features military aircraft flyovers, fireworks, and the 43-car grid on pit road. In-car audio features former Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and current Michael Waltrip Racing executive Ty Norris as spotter. Ray Evernham is featured as crew chief in NTG: Inside Line, replaced by Jeff Hammond in later games. NASCAR race director David Hoots is also featured. [4]
Contrary to the initial promotional trailer for NTG: 2011, which features a dramatic crash scene with highly realistic damage, [17] Nascar The Game uses a "scaled back" damage model. This model is less realistic than pure simulators, but more rigid and less forgiving than prior console games. Some damage is visually realistic, with debris falling off cars having the ability to puncture tires. Colliding with outside walls does have the effect of damaging the chassis, altering the handling of the car. The overall effects on performance, however are gradual, with heavy impacts only creating minor or moderate visual damage and performance effects. Additionally, any effects on performance can be fixed with a pit stop. [7] [14] [15] For NASCAR '14 , Eutechnyx partnered with Nvidia to enhance smoke and debris effects. [18] [19]
For the game-controlled cars in single-player mode, the developers sought to replicate the real-life racing styles of the drivers, including differences in aggression and performance. Beginning with NASCAR The Game: Inside Line , the developers used positional and telemetry data recorded by NASCAR during races and driver performance statistics to construct each computer-controlled driver. This includes bump drafting initiated by the A.I. cars. Like in other NASCAR games, pit stops were replicated using motion capture of real-life pit crew members. [4] [7] [20] [21] [22] [23]
NASCAR The Game features an in-depth 3-D Paint Booth, allowing players to create custom paint schemes. Individual car parts can be painted, and several decals from geometric shapes to patterns can be enlarged, skewed, and pasted to create custom designs. Sponsor logos, including contingency sponsors and primary team sponsors such as Bass Pro Shops, and custom text can be added. The Paint Booth is expanded from most other NASCAR games, except for NASCAR Racing 2003 Season , NASCAR 09 , and IRacing which allow for outside creation in computer paint programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Paint.NET. [7] [16] [19] [21]
NASCAR The Game includes several races modes, including Quick Race (or Single Race or Race Now), Single Season, Track Testing, and offline Split-Screen. [4]
In its initial release, NTG's career mode is simply a more in-depth version of season mode, in which the player controls one of the featured NASCAR drivers through the course of a season. It includes minimal management roles, such as unlocking sponsorship over the course of the mode. [4] [24]
Beginning in NASCAR The Game: Inside Line , a new more in-depth career mode was introduced, similar to that of NASCAR Thunder 2004 . The player assumes the role of a rookie Sprint Cup Series driver, managing the day-to-day operations of a startup single-car-team (though it is implied that there is a principal team owner). The player is placed in a two-lap test session (typically at Indianapolis Motor Speedway or Auto Club Speedway) to evaluate driving skill, with the game suggesting assist levels for the mode moving forward. The player is then placed in a minimally or unsponsored ride with bottom-end equipment, but can earn primary and associate sponsorship and in-game-credits towards equipment upgrades. [4] [15] In NTG: Inside Line and its PC counterpart NTG: 2013, the player is placed in a Sprint-sponsored car, with paint schemes dictated by the primary sponsor, and associate sponsor placement determined by the game. [4] For NASCAR '14 , the career mode was further expanded, including the utilization of the Paint Booth to create custom career paint schemes and allow the user to choose the placement of sponsor logos. The equipment management aspect was also expanded, including the necessity to purchase individual car components such as engines and car bodies, and the ability to invest in research and development. [15] [19] [21]
NASCAR Highlights is a game mode which takes the player through real-life situations from the preceding Sprint Cup Series season. The mode is a successor to the Lightning Challenges (later the Dodge Challenges) from the EA Sports NASCAR series. Like the A.I., the scenarios are constructed using in-race telemetry. [4] [15] [21]
This mode allows the player to run test laps against a "ghost car" of a Sprint Cup Series driver, with the objective of beating their real-life best lap from the previous season. It resembles the "Thunder Licence" mode from NASCAR Thunder 2004 , although unlike in NASCAR Thunder, no rewards are given for beating the best lap. [4]
NTG allows up to 16 players to compete in online races. Online leagues were added in NASCAR '14. The online mode does not, however, feature A.I. cars to fill out a full field. [21]
Like its predecessors, the NASCAR The Game installments feature part-time drivers, Xfinity Series (formerly Nationwide Series) and Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series (formerly Camping World) drivers as field fillers. The exclusion of certain teams is due to licensing deadlines or lack of interest from certain teams. NASCAR The Game: Inside Line is the only game in the series to feature 43 licensed Sprint Cup Series entries upon release. [4] [20] [25]
The series features several "special" or associate sponsor paint schemes in addition to primary schemes. Beginning with NASCAR The Game: Inside Line , each scheme was designed to replicate its real-life counterpart in a specific race, as opposed to schemes designed in conjunction with team and sponsor input. For example, David Ragan's 2012 Al's Liners/Scorpion Window Film scheme, which had minor changes over the course of the season, was designed in the game to replicate the version run in the Daytona 500. [4] While NTG: Inside Line included over 120 schemes, [4] additional schemes in later games required the purchase of DLC. [26] [27]
Days of Thunder is a 1990 American sports action drama film produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and directed by Tony Scott. The film stars Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Cary Elwes, Caroline Williams, and Michael Rooker. It also features appearances by real life NASCAR racers, such as Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace, Neil Bonnett, and Harry Gant. Commentator Dr. Jerry Punch, of ESPN, has a cameo appearance, as does co-producer Don Simpson.
NASCAR Thunder 2004 is a racing simulator by EA Sports, released on September 16, 2003 and available in separate versions for PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Windows. It features the 2002 champion Tony Stewart on the cover with a scowling look to represent the new Grudges and Alliances feature. It was the only game as of 2002 to feature the previous Winston Cup Champion on the cover. The game had the most extensive soundtrack of the series up from four songs from the previous game. The game also has a career mode, season mode, Lightning Challenge mode, SpeedZone, as well as a tutorial mode featuring Richard Petty. The game is an EA Sports Bio game, and is compatible with other EA Sports Bio games like Madden NFL 2004 and NCAA Football 2004. It is considered by many as the greatest NASCAR game of all time. This was also the last NASCAR game for the PlayStation.
EA Sports NASCAR, alternately known as NASCAR Thunder, is a series of NASCAR video games published by EA Sports. The series began with NASCAR 98 and NASCAR 99 in 1997 and 1998. EA Sports released NASCAR Thunder 2002 in 2001, and ever since then, Jeff Gordon (2002), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2003), and Tony Stewart (2004) were on the cover. In 2004, they changed the name of the game to NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup and added the new features to make the game more up-to-date with the recent changes to NASCAR. Kevin Harvick was on the cover. The next year, they changed the name yet again to NASCAR 06: Total Team Control. Jeff Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson were on the cover. The new features were swapping cars with teammates and voice-recognition support for use with the crew chief. The following year, the game was titled NASCAR 07 and features Elliott Sadler on the cover. The new features include a new speed blur effect and an all-new momentum system, used to describe drivers' strong and weak racetrack types. In 2004, the feature was a "Grudges and Alliances" feature in which if the player hits a car, they could retaliate. The feature received a mixed reaction.
NASCAR Thunder 2002 is a racing simulator video game developed by EA Tiburon and published by EA Sports that came out for the Sony PlayStation, Sony PlayStation 2, and Xbox. The theme song for the game on the six-generation systems is "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. It is the fifth game in the EA Sports NASCAR series of video games, and is the first of the series to have a new title. Notably, it is the first NASCAR game to feature alternate paint schemes on the cars. It featured the 2001 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Champion Jeff Gordon on its cover and 2000 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Champion Bobby Labonte on the disc.
NASCAR SimRacing, abbreviated NSR, is a computer racing simulator developed by EA Tiburon and released on February 15, 2005, by EA Sports for Microsoft Windows. The game includes all of the 2004 NEXTEL Cup Series drivers and tracks except Pocono Raceway, which was also absent from NASCAR 2005: Chase for the Cup, due to failed negotiations with licensing. Content from the 2004 NASCAR Busch Series and Craftsman Truck Series are also included.
NASCAR Racing 4 is a racing simulator produced by Papyrus and released in February 2001.
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) makes and enforces numerous rules and regulations that transcend all racing series.
Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli is a racing game developed by Eutechnyx and published by System 3, based on the Ferrari Challenge, a single-marque motorsport championship. The game features 14 playable tracks and Ferrari's own Fiorano test track, a vinyl editor and online play for all versions except the PS2. The Nintendo DS version, developed by Firebrand Games, features wireless multiplayer and the Wii version utilizes Wii Remote steering and support for the Wii Wheel. The game primarily features the driving and racing of the Ferrari F430 Challenge, along with a series of Ferrari road and racing cars that can be unlocked.
NASCAR 09 is the twelfth simulation installment in the EA Sports NASCAR series and the sequel to 2007 game NASCAR 08. It is developed by EA Tiburon and released on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in June 2008, and for mobile phones in September of the same year. Jeff Gordon is the cover athlete for NASCAR 09 for the first time since NASCAR 06: Total Team Control. Through the career mode, "Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup", Gordon leads a mentoring program, a new feature offered in NASCAR 09.
iRacing is a subscription-based online racing simulation video game developed and published by iRacing.com Motorsport Simulations in 2008. All in-game sessions are hosted on the publisher's servers. The game simulates real world cars, tracks, and racing events, and enforces rules of conduct modeled on real auto racing events.
Days of Thunder is a stock car racing video game produced by Paramount Digital Entertainment and developed by Piranha Games for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was released in February 2011 and is a spin-off of the 1990 film Days of Thunder in which the player is a rookie driver coached by Rowdy Burns, the antagonist from the film. The game received very little critical feedback; those that did review the game had generally negative commentary. Reviewers felt that the cars handled unrealistically, but one reviewer noted that some issues could be fixed with a patch.
NASCAR The Game: 2011, also known as NASCAR 2011: The Game, is a 2011 racing video game, developed by Eutechnyx and published by Activision. It is the first edition of the NASCAR The Game racing simulator series. Developed by Eutechnyx and published by Activision, it was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 29, 2011, then for Wii on May 24. It is the first NASCAR game since the contract between EA Sports and NASCAR expired, and the first by Activision Blizzard since NASCAR Racing 2003 Season.
NASCAR Unleashed is a racing video game developed by Firebrand Games and published by Activision. It was released on November 1, 2011 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and Nintendo 3DS.
Miguel Paludo is a Brazilian professional racing driver who competes full-time in the Porsche GT3 Carrera Cup Series. Paludo formerly competed in NASCAR full-time in the Camping World Truck Series, driving for Red Horse Racing and Turner Scott Motorsports. He has won four championships in the Porsche GT3 Cup Series, with three in the Carrera Cup and the other (2017) in the Endurance Series.
NASCAR The Game: Inside Line is the second edition of the NASCAR The Game racing simulator series, and the sequel to NASCAR The Game: 2011. Developed by Eutechnyx and published in the United States by Activision, it was released for PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 on 6 November 2012. A PC version for Windows was released in July 2013 entitled NASCAR The Game: 2013. All the 23 Sprint Cup Series race tracks are featured in the game, with the addition of various Cup Series drivers, teams and cars. The game's cover features NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. his first cover since NASCAR Thunder 2003.
NASCAR '14 is a NASCAR video game. It is the third edition of the NASCAR The Game racing simulator series, and is the sequel to NASCAR The Game: Inside Line. Developed by Eutechnyx and published by Deep Silver, the game was released on February 18, 2014, for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC.
NASCAR '15 is a NASCAR video game, the fourth installment in the NASCAR The Game series and an update to the preceding NASCAR '14. Developed by Eutechnyx, and published by new NASCAR video game licensee Dusenberry Martin Racing, it is available on the seventh generation PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 consoles as well as Microsoft Windows. Physical copies of the console version were available at GameStop stores, with digital downloads then-available on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. Steam is selling the game for Windows PC.
NASCAR Heat Evolution is a racing video game developed by Monster Games and published by Dusenberry Martin Racing. The game was released in North America on September 13, 2016 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. It is the follow-up to the 2015 release of NASCAR '15 Victory Edition and the first developed by Monster Games since NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona was released in 2002.
NASCAR Rivals is a racing video game simulating the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season. It was developed by Motorsport Games and was released on October 14, 2022 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.
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